On the verge of death? Gotcha! I've been in situations like this several times in life. With electricity, in vehicles, on the bicycle, on construction sites, at home... but this time I'll relate one that is more recent.

A friend and I were in a vehicle, he was driving. We were going down a long straight road, about a kilometer or more. Generally, drivers take advantage of this stretch and accelerate. At the end of it comes a sharp curve. Then, as we approached the end of this straight, sharp curve, we saw that a passenger bus had unwisely stopped just at the beginning of the curve.

We could both make out that it was a very old grandfather who for decades had been dedicated to providing public transportation services in the town, and was reluctant to stop doing so, despite his diminished eyesight, his reflexes and his ability to give change for the fare. The whole town knew he was like that. The drivers always stayed away from him, because he could stop suddenly at any place or he could recklessly pull into the opposite channel. And those of us who used his service knew that he could hold a conversation without looking ahead when driving, and even look you in the eyes for several seconds. "Hey! Please look at the road". So we had him in front of us, with one more recklessness. But it gets better...

Source

Obviously my friend slowed our vehicle and while wondering what to do we saw in the mirrors a garbage collection truck coming up behind us at a higher speed than it should be. So my friend in a fraction of a second decided to accelerate and pass the grandfather's truck. It was a choice between dying in a head-on collision with another car that might be coming around a curve, or dying crushed between the bus and the truck.

Fortunately, there was no other vehicle coming in front of us, and nothing happened to us. Unfortunately, however, we cannot say the same for the grandfatherly truck driver and his passengers. The garbage truck had no brakes, after accelerating on the long straight road, so it hit the bus from behind, because it did not take the same risk that we took when we took the opposite channel in the middle of the curve to pass the bus. After that accident, our famous grandfather never got behind the wheel again.

That's right, if it wasn't for my friend's quick decision and his driving expertise, we would have been crushed and sold for scrap.

_{This is my response to the Hive account@galenkp planting for this weekend, about: "Have you, or someone close to you, been in a life and death situation?"}

_{Banner: Made by me in GIMP with my own images and free resources from the site pfpmaker.com/}